In today’s competitive marketplace, the benefits of individual achievement—while always important—pale in comparison to what can be achieved through high-performing teamwork. If you’ve put in the time, strategy, and effort to hire the right people for your positions,...

These days, employees leave one job and take another for a host of reasons. One reason that should never come up is a company’s toxic culture. In the hunt for talent, businesses can’t afford to lose valued workers because the work environment is dysfunctional,...

In the fevered competition to recruit and hire “A-player” job candidates, many recruiters and HR departments are turning to a different model to get the job done. Imposing the structure of a sales process offers a new way to look at recruitment in general, and how to...

15 Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Risk In 2017, The Alternative Board surveyed hundreds of business owners about their cybersecurity experiences and fears, as well as their plans for keeping their companies safe. According to the results, over half of the business...

Having an engaged and high-performing team should be a top priority for every small business. A talented individual is always a big asset, but when you put several such individuals, there’s no limit to what the team can achieve. But it’s not enough to sit back and let...

I’ve been reading up on employee engagement and have come across some scary statistics about disengagement and lack of passion in the ranks. Here are a few ideas to help get your employees engaged: Give them side projects to do that are of interest to them and have...

It wasn’t always the case, but these days many business owners and CEOs are younger than the workforce they lead and manage. A “one-size-fits-all” leadership style is therefore likely to result in a troubled workplace environment, since it fails to consider key...

In recent years there’s been an ongoing debate in business circles regarding Leadership vs. Management. While the concept of visionary leadership has been trending positively, the once noble role of management has become somewhat maligned. But before you throw out...

The Alternative Board conducted a productivity survey of hundreds of entrepreneurs to discover how business owners are really spending their time. While 76% of business owners reported above average time management skills, 85% admit to working over 40 hours a week. Do...

In recent years, The Alternative Board (TAB) released a Small Business Pulse Survey, which focused on the time management and productivity challenges business owners have. We found that almost three-quarters of business owners either sometimes or always feel...

You’re living the dream that so many wish they could live: you own your own business. We don’t need to tell you that entrepreneurship is not always all it’s romanticised to be -- owning your own business presents a unique set of challenges, to say the least. You’ve...

When the business becomes the main focus, as it is for many business owners, a sense often develops that there will be time at some point in the future to take care of your family and personal life. This may not be true if specific goals and objectives aren’t defined,...

A LinkedIn profile novice A few years ago, I made the transition from a traditional marketing professional to an internet marketing professional. The first day after my promotion, I cockily strolled into my boss’s office, ready for some serious discussion about...

Some may agree we have reached a plateau of invention... or perhaps not. Robert Gordon published a piece recently in the Wall Street Journal titled Why Innovation Won't Save Us. He argues that our prime innovations are behind us. The period from 1875 to about 2000 had...

Like all other facets of society, the business world has undergone seismic changes in the past year. However, one operational element—the recruitment and hiring of quality talent—remains unchanged. If anything, the competition to draw new applicants to open job...

Increasingly, businesses in search of talented job candidates are turning to social media as part of their overall recruitment strategy. “Social recruiting” seeks to leverage the power of various social media platforms to strengthen an employer brand, attract interest...

Every business needs a strategic plan. Every business needs a business plan. It’s knowing precisely what each plan entails and when that plan can be of most use that makes the difference between these two essential documents. Let’s start by defining the purpose behind...

“If you don’t know where you're going, any road will take you there.” -  Lewis Carroll, as paraphrased by George Harrison The Cheshire Cat and our favourite Beatle didn’t necessarily have business owners in mind when they suggested that an ambiguous destination is...

Project Management for Small Business XV The last topic to tackle in this project management series is assessing the success of a project. I introduced some previous topics by explaining that you probably think the task, such as issue management, is simple….but doing...

Who is your Harvey Nyquist? Have you ever heard of Harvey Nyquist? Not many people have. In fact, with all the buzz about Apple, Google, and the like, Bell Labs doesn't even come to mind very often. Bell Labs is probably the single most influential organisation to the...

It boils down to a matter of trust. Did you see the story about Yahoo saying "no more telecommuting?" When the Yahoo staff heard Marissa Mayer from Google was taking over the helm of Yahoo, they probably didn't see that coming. Mayer has brought in other perks such as...

Salespeople all agree about the importance of “ABC” (Always Be Closing), but there’s considerable diversity of opinion on how to go about it. The best salespeople understand that working towards a close is part of a longer, more complicated process. Every step along...

Most businesses offer a solution to problems or otherwise fulfill a need experienced by their target audience. They can only go on doing this if—in exchange for delivering a valued good or service—they get paid for doing so. As part of overall business operations,...

Employee recruitment, training, and orientation are critical to the success of any organisation. A well-thought-out and executed onboarding plan helps set new employees up for success. However, the current pandemic has made the hiring process more challenging than...

Kick-off your business in 2021 on the right foot by starting at the foundation of every successful business: strategy. The strategy is even more important for your business after the year we all had last year, where many of our strategies went off course. Strategic...

In “normal” times, businesses often face the challenge of reducing expenditures while maintaining efficiency and productivity within their business operations. As we have noted before, “excessive costs—which also detract from funding new customer acquisitions or...